


The Rescue On Deburid III

by thebewlaysister



Series: The Deburidian Divide [1]
Category: Star Trek: Alternate Original Series (Movies)
Genre: Blood and Injury, Family, Family Reunions, Farce, Fluff and Angst, Gen, Hospitalization, Humor, Nursing, Rescue, Studying, Swearing
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-08-12
Updated: 2016-09-07
Packaged: 2018-08-08 08:10:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 4,809
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7750030
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thebewlaysister/pseuds/thebewlaysister
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Post-Beyond/tangential AU story set after the crew of the Enterprise reunite on Yorktown; at first I wanted to explore a scenario where Spock has a chance to discover his maternal family and then it kind of grew into a full narrative alien-wise. There may be factual errors and I am taking a lot of liberties with the reboot timeline.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. The Rescue On Deburid III

Spock quickly slipped on his black overalls as McCoy spoke. "Alright, Spock. We have about two hours on this planet before the sun sets and we get frozen to a crisp."

"That time is sufficient, Doctor. The heat signature I am picking up indicates Cadet Amalia is no more than a half hour away."

"Very well. I'm just not planning on being a goddamn popsicle."

Spock lifted an eyebrow slightly as he slipped on his boots, but remained stony faced and silent. The boots were lined with fur and clunked heavily as he walked the length of the shuttle to retrieve his phaser.

Once both men were booted and layered up they quickly arranged themselves so that they stood side by side in the doorway. McCoy, adjusting the weight distribution of his backpack one final time, glanced at Spock, but he did not return the favour. He was staring straight ahead, not moving. "Spock," McCoy breathed. The Vulcan came to his senses and pressed a button which opened the hatch.

They were immediately hit by an intense wave of icy air and flaky snow. The two men braced their bodies against the force of the wind and then stepped out determinedly into the blizzard. The hatch closed and beeped behind them.

\----------

The heat signature on Spock's screen was glowing fainter and fainter by the minute. "Spock, how much further?" McCoy shouted clumsily into the wind, his legs stumbling as he spoke. Spock grabbed him by the shoulder for stability. The snow had been deep, but was lessening now and becoming increasingly slushy as they progressed. They both squinted into the distance, their eyesight blurred by rapidly falling snow.

"We should be coming across Cadet Amalia in the next couple of minutes," he responded, his voice raised unnaturally against the roar of the wind but his cadence as clear as ever.

Suddenly, a booming animalistic shriek punctured the deafening wind. Both men froze in their tracks. They were yards away from a large rocky outcrop, the horizon immediately ahead of them obscured by large boulders. The sound of a heavy weight being dragged across the floor greeted them as they squatted behind the rocks. A human shout of pain followed.

"Bloody hell, Spock" McCoy muttered. "What the hell is that?" Spock peeked his head slightly over the boulder and quickly returned it. "Cadet Amalia." Spock grabbed his phaser, stood upright and immediately entered the clearing, stunning the offending beast as he went.

The animal, a great shaggy beast with very large disc shaped eyelids, slumped heavily to the ground. Another cry of pain was heard. Spock spotted a human torso obscured by rocks. McCoy sped past him.

It was indeed Cadet Amalia. Arriving by McCoy's side, Spock saw that Amalia was bleeding heavily from the left leg. It seemed the creature had somehow bitten right through to the bone, all the way along the bottom half of the leg.

"I've never seen a wound like this before."

"Evidently, Doctor, the creature was attempting to access Cadet Amalia's bone marrow. The flesh around the bone has been completely ignored."

McCoy pulled off his backpack and started rummaging around for something. Amalia was semi-conscious and grasping her leg tightly. Spock lifted her upper body away from the frozen ground and rested her against his legs, which were folded tightly underneath him. They needed to warm her up.

"We need to bind and splint the leg. We'll have to carry her back but we have to be quick. It's going to take at least half an hour longer to get back, given the burden."

"I assume you meant that word as a technicality, Doctor-"

"Obviously, Spock."

McCoy set to work on the leg. Amalia was shivering violently. "Doctor, do you have something in that backpack that can keep her warm?"

"There's a small blanket in there somewhere. The top I think".

Spock dragged the rucksack over without moving from his place and within a few seconds had retrieved a blanket from the top compartment. He wrapped it tightly around her shoulders. Amalia pulled at it lightly, as though trying to guide it.

"A couple more minutes and we're ready to go-"

The snow had subsided but the wind was howling louder than ever. The end of Spock's nose was turning a slight green. McCoy's fingers, now stripped to a minimum layer for accessibility, were trembling and slipping from the cold.

"Ok, Spock-"

McCoy arranged his backpack briefly before throwing it back onto his shoulders. Spock lifted Amalia's slight frame over his shoulder and used his superior Vulcan strength to straighten himself up. His legs shook slightly.

The two men ventured forth once more into the wind, this time headed back towards the shuttle.

\--------

The hatch beeped shut once more behind them.

Spock and McCoy were back on board the shuttle. The ship's secondary electronics started up again, producing a low hum. Spock carried Amalia to the back of the ship and carefully laid her down on the small travel bed.

"Easy there," McCoy guided. Spock then hurried to the front of the ship to prepare them for flight. McCoy busied himself around Amalia. He strapped her in and then returned to the front of the shuttle, sitting himself in the co-pilot spot.

Within a couple of minutes the engines had started up, and the ship was in the air.

"Spock, I hope you know what you're doing. Gravity did most of the work on the way down. I've barely flown a thing in my life; Altamid wasn't much of a learning curve."

"It is relatively simple, Leonard. The autopilot does everything. We simply take over in an emergency."

"Yeh, that's what I'm afraid of."

\----------

Commodore Paris paced the hall nervously. The ambassador to the Deburids had not been absent from the hall long and already loud voices were carrying down the corridor beyond. Suddenly the heavy door slid open and a group of people entered.

"I'm afraid your proposition is unacceptable. Peace between our two clans is fragile and I cannot risk its destruction for the sake of a few cadets."

"We have lost some of our most promising potential officers, Ambassador Mhurr. Our Cadet Amalia has been working on multidimensional geometry for three years and was just about to graduate with honors. And we do not just leave our people to perish. Not when there's any chance of saving them," Officer Flitchwick responded.

A Deburidian official piped up.

"Ambassador, one of their medical officers has been missing from Yorktown for three days. And they haven't seen anything of an Officer Spock."

Ambassador Mhurr paused, his face setting into a deep frown. "This is correct?" he enquired, turning to Commodore Paris for the first time.

"Yes, Ambassador," she replied without pause.

"So not only have you lost some of your own cadets in a simple training exercise, but your officers also do as they damn well please?" Ambassador Mhurr's voice was raising again.

"Our beams were intercepted. We did not just lose them, as you say," Officer Flitchwick interjected.

Commodore Paris exhaled slightly.

"Ambassador, our graduates have very strong bonds. We are a family."

"Indeed! A dysfunctional family!" Mhurr emphasised with a tone of ridicule in his voice. He waved a hand in the air as if to suggest the conversation finished.

"I do not grant you permission to search our system. That is the end of the matter. I am sorry, Commodore. We Deburidians have waited too long for this peace. I am not going to damage it now."

Mhurr beckoned his official towards the door.

Flitchwick gazed at Paris despairingly. The Commodore gazed back for a few moments, before looking down at the floor.

\-------------

"Spock, you are batshit crazy." Kirk's voice crackled over the comms link.

"Captain, given that the cadet's signature was located quite easily and she had limited time left to live, it was logical for a smaller inconspicuous party to retrieve her immediately. Waiting would almost certainly have resulted in her loss." Spock reeled off his refutation flawlessly.

"It's not like you to break the rules, Spock".

"Yeah, I did offer to check him over for rovian fleaworms, but he wasn't so keen on an anal exam," McCoy interrupted, half-jokingly but with a slight wobble in his voice.

"Jim," Spock continued, his tone shifting slightly. "Please arrange for the Enterprise to pick up our craft. We are on the outskirts of the Deburid system."

There was a pause on the comms link. McCoy swore he could have heard Kirk's slowed breathing.

"I'm on it."

The link cut out.

A low groan issued from the back of the shuttle. McCoy turned in Amalia's direction. She was sitting half-up from the supine position, one arm supporting her weight and the other hand clutching her side.

"You okay back there?" McCoy enquired.

"My side is killing me," she muttered.

McCoy quickly unbuckled himself from the co-pilot's chair. Upon arriving at Amalia's side he carefully pulled back the side of her cadet reds. There was a growing bulge there, and a sickly purple bruise had formed.

"Jesus, you're hemorrhaging-"

Spock turned in his own chair to glance at the scene unfolding. There was a very brief flash of panic in his eyes, though his expression hid it well.

McCoy scrambled around the shuttle in search of his medical equipment.

"Fuck it!"

"I'm gonna be sick-"

"Ok but I need to move you around a bit. Spock ! A sickbag."

Spock left his seat and pulled out a sickbag from a storage compartment down one side of the shuttle. He rushed to the two of them.

McCoy had arranged Amalia so that she lay on her healthy side, sick bag at the ready. But her eyes fluttered, as though she was about to pass out. The bag slipped from her fingers.

McCoy numbed the region he needed to work on and grabbed a medical instrument which would mend the internal laceration. As he proceeded with his work, Spock held Amalia still by the shoulders with one hand and the sick bag with the other.

The comms link crackled and an unfamiliar voice carried along the shuttle. "Officer Spock, the Enterprise is on its way to the Deburid system. Please prepare for boarding in a few minutes."

"Received, Commander," Spock steadily called down the length of the ship. The voice was unknown to him but he could make a reasonable assumption as to the status of the speaker.

Spock turned his head back to McCoy's work. His Vulcan mind was its usual steady self but his stomach, just momentarily, did a backwards somersault.

\----------


	2. A Familial Enquiry

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After the rescue on Deburid III, Spock reveals his knowledge of his relation to Cadet Amalia. Contains high levels of cheese and something called a "trope".

"Jim, who sent the retrieval response when Doctor McCoy and I were on the edge of the Deburid system?"

Spock and Kirk were stood in the turbolift. Kirk stared for a moment, then blinked.

"Flitchwick. My temporary science officer. Given that you and Bones were, um, _o_ _ff duty_  ... "

Spock's tone rose a little in surprise. "Why did you not send the message yourself?"

"I had a few thoughts to rearrange ... " Kirk trailed off into thought. Spock gazed at Kirk analytically. He rapidly switched subjects.

"How is Cadet Amalia?" he enquired.

"Recovering well. There should be no lasting damage. She is already reading geometry again."

"Huh, does she ever let up?"

Spock raised a puzzled eyebrow. "I do not understand that particular combination of prepositions, Jim."

Kirk grinned. At that moment the turbolift opened onto the bridge, at which point he turned to his crew and stepped out as captain once more.

\---------

Amalia was bruised but alive. She had been in a private wing of sickbay for a week and the leg still needed a few weeks to mend; the hemorrhaging however had long since been stemmed. Spock had been there in the wing the first time she had woken up. McCoy had remarked on how unusual it was for the science officer to personally check up on an individual who was not a member of the bridge, but then he had presumed that Spock simply wished to enquire into how the five lost cadets could have mysteriously vanished mid-beam.

Amalia was alternately reading and typing on a PADD, nodding slightly or smiling now and again when a particular thought satisfied her. As she worked, the Vulcan appeared in the doorway.

"Cadet Amalia, I hope I'm not intruding," he began.

Amalia looked up and smiled, "not at all."

Spock approached and pulled up a chair by Amalia's bedside and she closed a window on her PADD. Spock's facial expression was unreadable and he was sitting in the most Vulcan way imaginable : back straight, feet together, hands neatly curling around kneecaps, as though he might slip into a vertiginous crevass should he dare let his body loose.

"I hope you are well?"

"Very well, thank you. I was just exploring a very interesting train of thought I've had involving six dimensions."

"Fascinating. Hyperspatial geometry is a very fulfilling subject. Will you be taking the final exams at the end of this year?"

"Of course," Amalia replied. "I very much look forward to graduating."

"Have you decided on a path after graduation?"

"I should like to enter the science division at Starfleet. A path similar to your own, in fact."

"I highly recommend such a path. From what I can tell, you possess all that is expected of a science officer. May I ask," Spock's speech slowed, "what your family thinks of your decision?"

"Ah, I don't have much family."

"Beg my pardon, I believe that was too personal a query," Spock retracted suddenly.

"No, no, not at all. I've heard basically every judgement it is possible to hear about my life's arrangements. I do not wish to discourage such innocent enquiries like yours."

Amalia paused awkwardly. She had found herself picking up much of Spock's cadence. This wasn't totally alien to her; she'd always had a habit of absorbing the idiosyncrasies around her. But the speed and extent of this engulfment startled her.

"This is odd. Have we met before?"

Spock stared at her for a moment; something was clicking inside him. Amalia could practically see the cogs turning behind his eyes.

"We have not met before. But I share your feeling. May I ask you more about your family ? If you wish to share details, as I share my own, I believe this irregularity can be solved."

Amalia's eyes lit up with curiosity.

"What is it you know?"

Spock began slowly, "I believe your aunt was an Amanda Grayson."

"That's right. I never met her though. My mother used to say to me that she had moved off-planet somewhere."

"That is true. Amanda Grayson was my mother."

Amalia's mind shifted rapidly into shock and then a sudden seriousness. Spock had spoken in the past tense.

"I'm sorry, is she no longer here?" she enquired.

"No." His voice caught just a little in his throat. "I lost her when my planet, Vulcan, was destroyed." Spock's eyes shone over noticeably at these words.

"I'm so sorry. That's awful."

Spock stared into the middle distance for a moment, composing himself. He took a breath and then spoke again, this time with a renewed strength.

"I do believe, Cadet Amalia, that this makes us cousins," Spock said finally.

"My god..."

Thoughts were tumbling through Amalia's brain and her heart was beating so hard she thought her chest might burst.

"I ... have not had any family members to call my own since I was nine years old."

She was about to cry, but sensing Spock's own solid composure, she swallowed her tears. She wished so desperately to hug the Vulcan, but knew that would not do. A handshake? But Vulcans were so picky about their hands. What could she say?

"Thank you," she began, "for coming to rescue me. I should definitely have died had I not received your assistance."

"You're very welcome, Amalia." The tiniest smile raised and curled up slightly between his cheeks. His glistening eyes were enough to express the rest.

"My first name is Alexys," she offered.

"Alexys, it has been very pleasing to meet you, and I hope to talk again. But I must get back to my work now."

"Of course. And I have to study."

Spock made his sideways nod of acknowledgement. He stood up, turned around and replaced the chair. As he walked away his gait somehow seemed incrementally _chipper_ than it had before.

Cadet Amalia leaned back into her pillow and closed her eyes in quiet ecstasy.

 _Family_ , she thought. She savoured the feeling like a very old, very lost friend.

\----------


	3. Unnecessary Complexity

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Some Spirk angst and a flashback to Spock's childhood.

"Alright, so ... four cadets to go." Kirk was pacing the bridge.

"Captain, we cannot use the Enterprise. It would compromise the stability of the Deburidian peace treaty."

Both clans of the Deburidians were notoriously technophobic, and considered any breach of their respective spaces with technology to be a threatening act.

"So we go incognito," Kirk responded. "We return the Enterprise to Yorktown, and use the old mining ships. The Deburidians won't notice, they don't have the tech to sense us."

"Captain, you are forgetting what happened on Kronos."

"The Deburidians are not Klingons."

"I appreciate the genotypic differences, Captain. But their peace treaty is imbued with a level of stability approximate to a Klingon temperament. We cannot guarantee that they would be forgiving of our intrusions."

"Did you get any information out of Cadet Amalia about the beaming incident?"

"She was beamed directly onto the north polar region of Deburid III. Nobody was present on her arrival," Spock reeled off. "She hid in a cave for three days attempting to contact Starfleet, was attacked by an animal that she had been attempting to hunt, and then we found her. There are no immediately useful details to her story."

"No signature to the beam's interference?"

"Nothing decipherable."

Kirk's eyebrows rose.

"Chekov, have you looked at the signature?"

"Ayy, captain. I can make no sense of it."

The Captain was silent for a moment. He walked up to Spock again and looked him directly in the eyes.

"We ditch the Enterprise at Yorktown. We set out with a minimal crew. And we search the system." Kirk repeated. "How many habitable planets are there in the system?"

"Three, Captain," Spock responded after a pause. The Vulcan had produced the tiniest exhalation. He knew he had been defeated; it was one of those instances, he realized, in which he must give in to his Captain's ideas.

"Right. So, we survey each one, and send three or four groups to a planet ? Sulu, set course for Yorktown."

"Yes, sir."

\-------------

_"Spock," Amanda sighed, gently caressing her son's face. They were both sat on the edge of Spock's bed, the semi-dark of twilight flooding his room. "You are upset."_

_The little boy's brow line was furrowed ever so slightly but he continued to swallow his emotions. He could feel them tugging at his throat._

_"Is it the boys?"_

_"No ... it is one boy."_

_"One of the bullies?" Amanda enquired, her voice piqued with concern._

_"A ... friend."_

_Amanda's expression dissolved into a surprised smile. "A friend?"_

_"I believe he was a friend, Mother. Our time spent together was adequately fulfilling and there was no hostility between us."_

_"But you're no longer friends?"_

_Spock looked down at his hands. They were curled tightly in his lap._

_"He has not been present at the Learning Center for some time. I think he is ill."_

_A wave of understanding washed over her. "So you miss him?"_

_Spock’s gaze shifted away from his hands and into his mother's eyes. It hurt so much to look at them. They startled him, these dark wells awash with feeling, and he sometimes felt as though he might drown in them. A flicker of envy crossed his mind momentarily; why must he control his feelings ? Why couldn't he let the anguish pour out of him ? Why was he prohibited from a cry of pain, or for that matter, a fit of laughter ?_

_"Do you miss Earth?" he asked suddenly. It came out so forcefully, he realised he hadn't quite let the envy pass._

_"Every day," Amanda nodded, her response slipping effortlessly from her. The pain was visible in her eyes and her voice shook slightly. Spock looked at her for a few moments and his composure melted. Without a moment's thought he pushed himself tightly against his mother's bosom and let all the feelings wash over him. In that moment, as his mother cradled him, his heart was flung wide open and he felt infinity pour in. He finally allowed a tear to begin flowing down his cheek._

_"I have a sister on Earth," she whispered, "and I miss her ... every single day." She emphasised the last few words and breathed deeply into her son's dark hair. "Cressida ... a few weeks ago, in fact, she married a man from her work ... Pyotr Amalia. I wish, with all my heart, that I could have been there ... " She trailed off as Spock pulled his head away in order to meet her gaze. He analysed her with a look of simultaneous hurt and curiosity._

_"I must let her go," Amanda said finally. "I do wish, however, for you both to meet each other some day." Amanda pulled Spock inwards once more and laid her own head over his small shoulder._

_Spock pushed his body even harder against his mother, his arms wrapped tightly around her, lest she should somehow slip away from him or he from her. In that moment, he felt his human side win. He wished never to leave her warm grasp, but lie there for eternity._

\-------------

"You never actually told me how you got to the Deburid system so quickly," Kirk exclaimed suddenly, his arm reaching for a drink from a cabinet. "For a shuttle, it's light years away."

"Mr Scott was kind enough to beam us to another space station nearby. We took a shuttle from there," Spock elucidated.

"But he never mentioned anything-"

"We feared that word might otherwise have been received by the Deburidians before we could have a chance to retrieve Cadet Amalia from the planet. Consequently we asked Mr Scott not to speak about it."

Kirk stared at the Vulcan for a moment. "You know I would never have told anyone ? I'm not like that, Spock."

"I am aware of your unique virtues, Jim, and for them I am grateful. However I did not wish to introduce unnecessary complexity into the situation."

"I'm _unnecessary complexity_?" Kirk placed a glass down at his desk and turned back to Spock. He looked visibly surprised and hurt by the statement.

"That was not what I was suggesting Jim-"

"Then what _were_  you suggesting?"

Spock approached the table. Kirk gestured to an empty glass on the counter.

"I do not drink, Jim. Alcohol has no effect on me-"

"Which means your thinking faculties will remain untarnished," Kirk nodded. The Vulcan, after a moment of thought, conceded and apprehensively sat himself down.

"Spock, I checked the records. I know about Cadet Amalia."

"Jim ..." Spock began. He stuttered on his next word. No sentence seemed sufficient; he could not excuse himself. His logic was broken. The rescue had, after all, been driven by feeling rather than protocol. And he could not lie.

"Why didn't you tell me?"

"Forgive me, Jim. The loss of my Mother on Vulcan had also been simultaneously a loss of connection to my maternal family; her earth past had always been, for the most part ... closely guarded."

Spock's gaze dropped from Kirk to the newly filled glass in front of him. He placed his fingers tentatively around it.

"I overheard by chance Cadet Amalia's name ..." he continued, "when the Commadore notified us of the beaming incident ... I recognised her surname from what my mother had told me about her sister. It is statistically an uncommon surname and upon inspection of the relevant files I discovered that she was indeed ... a relative."

"And you took it upon yourself to rescue her," Kirk nodded. There was a moment of silence before he spoke again. "Yeah ... I would have done the same."

The two men met each other’s gaze again. Jim's expression was now lined with empathy and understanding. He gave his friend a sad smile.

"A lot of statistically unlikely things happen, huh?"

"Jim, I had had insufficient time to process what was for me an immensely emotional discovery. I assure you I was planning to speak to you."

"I understand, Spock," he said finally, filling his own glass. "No hard feelings."

Spock picked up the glass in front of him, eyeing the contents curiously. Kirk was beginning to find the pairing of Spock and alcohol rather amusing and was trying to disguise what was quickly morphing into a tightly curling grin.

He raised his own glass to Spock with a broadening smile.

"To feelings," he joked, knocking Spock's glass.  
"And ... family," Spock responded thoughtfully.

Kirk let out a small laugh and the two of them swigged in unison.

\------------


	4. An Alturian Farce

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A little transitional chapter where Spock, Jim, Uhura & Bones take a ship to Deburid I to rescue the remaining cadets. I just wanted a chance to play their verbal traits off of each other before the action(!) really gets going later on. Enjoy. :)

Scrambled alien words echoed around their small trading ship.

"Uhura, can you translate?" Kirk asked.  
She shook her head. "It's unfamiliar, sir".

Kirk glanced at his first officer, who gave him a blank look.

Several of these trading ships were currently surveying the Deburid system's habitable planets for the lost cadets, and Kirk, Spock, Bones and Uhura had decided to take their ship out to Deburid I. They had been scanning the planet for life signs when their study had suddenly been interrupted by a strange message.

The four of them listened intently as the alien voice continued to bounce around the ship. After a few seconds, it slipped into a final echo before fading out.

Deburid I's eccentric and regularly tight orbit currently had the planet hurtling between its two binary stars. By most measures, it should have been uninhabitable. But during Spock and Bones' last venture into the Deburid system their shuttle had picked up unusual developments on this planet.

"What was that ? A distress call? An automated message?" Kirk turned his head towards Spock. "You sure there are no life signs? You mentioned structures-"

"There is an atmospheric dome, dense vegetation, few manmade structures, but no humanoid life." Spock read from his desk. "One artificial satellite-"

Spock was cut off as the same message cut through the ship once more. It was less scrambled this time, and bits of English could be heard. Suddenly, it slipped into perfect English, and a computer generated alien face appeared on Spock's screen.

" _Our systems have searched your computer records and have selected the following language for this exchange : English. Variant : Earth. Your vessel identification is not recorded in our datalog. Please state your name and intent._ "

Spock looked up at his captain, but Kirk hesitated. If this was a message from the Deburid elders, he could not risk revealing the background of their crew. After all, they were not here on an official capacity.

"Jim ... Korn."

McCoy coughed ever so slightly, as though burying an awkward snigger.

"We are searching for ... some lost possessions ... and I believe they may be on your planet."

Uhura was gazing straight ahead and biting her lip _hard_. Spock was staring at his captain as though grass had started sprouting out of his ears.

" _Unfortunately, I do not have your name in our datalogs. Without a booking, I cannot allow access to this base_ ," the voice responded in a robotic cadence.

"Uh, what sort of booking would that be, exactly ? What is your base for ?" Kirk enquired.

" _Unfortunately, Alturia Resorts only accepts bookings in the aphelion date range. Our base is fully booked for the next three seasons_."

Kirk's smirk slipped into annoyed confusion for a moment. Before he could respond, however, the message had disappeared again.

The moment the connection cut out, Bones released a long rattling breath, as though he had been straining to hold in his amusement.

"Jim Korn? What are we, a tin of beans?" he cried incredulously.

Kirk span his seat around to face Bones.

"Perhaps this is a holiday planet?" Uhura suggested.

"If it is, it's an illegal venture. The peace treaty does not allow-

"If the Deburids were to find out one of their minor gods was being rented out to a bunch of overly endowed corporate strangefolks with more money than my littlest toe has sense-"

"We need to get onto that planet now," Spock interrupted the barrage of talk. "Soon the solar radiation will be too much for us to occupy the dome's interior unsheltered."

Kirk's own thoughts aligned with his first officer's. Spock was right. They had to get moving now. Permission or not, they had to get to that base, before the radiation levels rose so much that they'd start to penetrate the dome. They had four cadets to rescue, and they had no time to lose.

 


End file.
